Defining Home
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Luke returns to Misthallery as an adult and ends up discovering that life has changed a lot for Crow while he'd been gone. Crow/Luke.


**Notes:** Written for a kinkmeme prompt that wanted a fic dealing with Luke returning to Misthallery when he's older to find that Crow has been living it rough. The prompt also wanted a few more specific details that are dealt with in the fic, but I'm not going to list them all. This is set several years post-PL3, when Luke is an adult, and contains some spoilers for PL4. Also, there are clichés everywhere in this fic, so you have been warned.

* * *

When Luke had first moved away from Misthallery, he assumed that he'd never be going back there, at least not to live. It wasn't because he disliked the place, on the contrary he had many fond childhood memories of it, but as soon as he'd been offered the chance to go stay with Hershel Layton in London, Luke knew that was the life for him.

After living in London for a few years, he'd then moved again, this time to America, because of his father's work placement. This… hadn't been the move that Luke had wanted. His heart was in England and never really adjusted to being away from it. So, as soon as he was old enough, he'd bid his parents goodbye returned to London on his own accord.

Certainly he loved being back and was welcomed into the community with open arms. And yet, over time, he still felt oddly empty about being there. Which confused him, since he knew in himself that London was where he belonged.

He had a heartfelt talk with Layton about this and eventually determined that perhaps he was missing his original home, Misthallery. Because, while he'd been keeping contact with what was going on back in London through his letters to Layton and Flora, he really hadn't heard anything of Misthallery for many years. Even the initial pen pal relationship he'd had with Arianna had over time died out.

Layton told him that not knowing anything about what had happened to the place that he'd lived in for the first ten years of his life was probably what was nagging at the back of his mind and, if not to stay there, then Luke should at least visit to put his worries to rest.

Having agreed with his mentor, Luke swiftly set out to visit Misthallery. His father still owned their old house there and was glad to let Luke use it during his stay. He also chose to travel there alone, as it felt right, somehow. He wasn't sure exactly what to expect of the place or how he might react to it, so he wanted to have his space – which Layton and Flora both respected, saying farewell to him for the second time.

As he parked his car at the edge of the town upon arriving (the rope bridges prevented cars from being driven very far into Misthallery), Luke looked upon his old home and felt a wave of familiarity hit him. The place had hardly changed at all, at least not from the outside. Which he really should have expected, given the usual reluctance to change that gripped many rural towns in England. The one difference he did notice was there was now a much larger car park outside, probably to accommodate for more visitors that the Golden Garden had brought to the area upon its public unveiling. That had been years ago though and Luke wondered if it still attracted the attention it once did.

After letting himself stand for a few minutes, he bundled together his luggage and made his way to his parent's old house. It was a good ten minute walk, if you were quick, and allowed Luke to see there had indeed been some changes to Misthallery, though most of them involved repairs or straight up rebuilding done to the houses that had been damaged during Descole's attack. Even Brock's house had now been rebuilt. Luke remembered how that guy had laughed when his house was destroyed and that everyone had thought he was crazy.

It was hard to walk through any part of the town without being hit by a memory of someone or something. Everything meant something to Luke. Perhaps the Professor had been right to come here.

But as Luke unlocked the door to his old house, he knew that the void hadn't quite been filled just yet. While he'd got a taster of the places he used to frequent, he had not yet seen any of the people he remembered. He'd seen people while walking through the town, of course, but no one that he'd known…

Any dwelling on this point was put on hold by the vast amount of letters littering the floor that made the door hard to open from the outside. Apparently a few of his parent's old contacts hadn't gotten the message about their change of address and the postman had continued to deliver here. It took him a little while to pick them all up and put them into neat piles. He made a note to send them to his parents later as, even though none of them were recent; he reasoned that they would want to have them.

As he walked into the hall, he realised just how unusually chilly the whole house was. Then it hit him that many of the windows had been left open. While he'd already moved out by the time his parents had decided to leave this house, Luke doubted that they would be careless enough to leave windows open and instantly became suspicious.

Heading upstairs, Luke hastily dumped his suitcase on the bed in his room, before exploring the rest of the manor.

It didn't take long to determine that at some point over the years the house had been burgled. Probably several times, given the many windows on the lower floor that had been left open. Much of what should have been piles of dust, left there after many years of neglect, had been recently disturbed, cupboards and drawers had clearly been rifled through, and any food that had been left in the kitchen had long since been eaten, though that may have been by the mice.

While there hadn't been much of value left in the house, his father had been unable to take with him all of the vintage wine stored in the cellar when he'd moved and it appeared that the burglar (or burglars) had picked up on this. In what Luke presumed would have been several visits, they had cleared the cellar out entirely.

Luke knew that his father would probably be upset to know this, mostly because of the value of the wine, much of which had been past down from his grandfather. It would be a shame to have to pass on the news…

Selfishly, Luke decided that this matter wasn't exactly pressing right now and could be dealt with when he got back to London. What's gone is gone. Probably long gone, in the case of the wine. Right now, he was more concerned with getting the house warmed up, so he closed all of the windows and got a fire going in the living room.

He'd been sat in an arm chair in front of the fire long enough to just start nodding off when a violent bang on the door jolted him awake.

Dashing through the hall, Luke pulled open the door to see the now grown up faces of the two siblings, Wren and Socket, who had lived in the market area when he was younger. They looked just as surprised to see him and he was to see them.

"Um, hi," Luke muttered, rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"Is that really you, little Luke Triton?" Socket asked, squinting at him.

"Yes, of course it is," Luke snapped, not very pleased with the 'little' comment, "Who else would be at my house other than me or my family?"

There was an awkward pause.

"We just thought… well, we saw the fire and we thought someone might have broken in," Wren said, after a moment.

"You're a bit late for that," Luke laughed, "This place has already been broken into a lot before now. And I can't imagine any burglars would make themselves comfortable enough to start a fire. But I'm being really rude here; it's very nice to see you both after so long. Please, come in!"

The two had shot each other a knowing glance when Luke had mentioned a burglar making themselves comfortable, which he filed away for further investigation later. While he doubted that either of them would rob him, he wasn't wholly convinced that they knew nothing about it.

In the meantime, he showed them through to living room, where the three of them sat around the fire.

"I'm sorry that I don't have anything to offer you," he started, "I forgot to pack any food with me and was just planning on getting something from Paddy's later. If he's still open."

"Old Paddy's still in business," Socket confirmed, "But if you're staying here for a while then you might as well pop down to the market to pick up something from Marilyn's stall. She has the nicest fruit and veg."

"Marilyn still runs that stall?" Luke asked, amazed at how little things really did seem to change here.

"She owns it herself now though," answer Socket.

"And it's not all of us doing exactly the same thing as you remember," Wren cut in, guessing what Luke was thinking, "Socket and I run a mechanics and Gus inherited the sweet stall from Aunt Taffy, since she didn't have any kids of her own. Um, a bunch of the guys moved off to other places to do other things, since it can be hard to make a profit in a small town like this."

"What about the Black Ravens? Are you guys still auctioning goods underground?" Luke checked.

There was another painful glance between the siblings. Luke was beginning to get annoyed by these and almost mentioned something, before Socket spoke up.

"We… kind of don't do that anymore," he said.

"Not because we didn't want to!" Wren added, quickly, "But… well… that sort of work is great when you're a kid, but it isn't built to last, you know?"

"I'd have thought that mysterious auctions would be a great way to make money when the tourists came flocking to see the Golden Garden. And I can't imagine Crow doing anything els- …Would you two stop looking at each other like that and just tell me what's going on?" Luke snapped, having caught them midsentence this time.

Getting to his feet, Socket mumbled, "You know, I don't think we're the right people to tell you some things. But look around and maybe you'll find out for yourself."

"Yeah, Socket's right. I hope you enjoy your stay here though, Luke. Maybe we'll see you later," Wren continued, following her brother's example and getting up to leave.

The two of them showed themselves out before Luke could even get to the door, leaving him with the distinct impression that he'd done something wrong.

It was time to do what Layton had always taught him and summarise what he knew about the situation so far.

Wren and Socket hadn't seemed too surprised by his suggestion that a burglar might want to make themselves comfortable in his house and yet they had run up here at the first sign that there may well be one. Did that mean that there was a burglar who they wanted to meet?

They had also told him that the Black Ravens had disbanded for financial reasons, though Luke doubted this was the truth of the matter. And they had left before he could really ask them anything about Crow.

Perhaps, before he went ahead to visit some of his old friends, it wouldn't hurt if Luke did a little bit of snooping first. He figured that the market would be a good place to start, as it had been the base of all of the Black Raven kids' operations back when he had lived here. It wasn't as if he hadn't intended to go to the market anyway, since he knew people there and needed to buy some food for his stay. So, with that as an excuse, he headed out.

If he'd expected mystery to jump out at him in the same way it usually did with Layton, then he was sorely disappointed. All in all, the market was dull and regular. He did meet up with a few of the old crowd, like Gus and Marilyn, who he chatted with for a while. But, just like the siblings, no one wanted to talk about what had become of the black market or Crow. They were happy to tell him that Scraps was now identifying valuable antiques for a small company or that Badger had been snatched up by a sports instructor who recognised his skill at running and thought he might make it to the Olympics if he played his cards right, but whenever Luke tried to ask about Crow they made excuses that they had other things to be getting on with.

By the time evening set in and the street lamps were dimly blinking into life, Luke was fed up of trailing around asking questions. He set his bag of groceries down and looked upon what had once been the entry point to the famed black market.

It was a glorified manhole, really. Leading deep down into the ground to create a suitably eerie backdrop for the auctions that used to be held there. Once upon a time it had been guarded by a boy called Roddy, who stopped those who had not past the Black Ravens' test from getting inside. But now it was abandoned, not even locked to stop anyone from wandering down.

Since there was no one left around at this time in the evening, Luke reasoned that it couldn't hurt to explore it a bit. If he wasn't meant to go down there then there'd be a sign or someone there to tell him not to, after all.

He removed the cover and lowered himself down to the tunnel below, working his way through to the rooms that had once held the stalls and auction rooms.

Having been told that this place hadn't been used in years, Luke wasn't surprised to see that it was in a state of decay and that nothing of value was left. What he was surprised to see was the amount of damage that had been left behind. Surely, if they had simply stopped using the venue, then there'd be no call for all the smashed stalls and ripped curtains. It really looked as though someone had gone through here with the intent of destroying it.

Heading through to the back room, Luke was greeted with much of the same sort of damage. Not that he had a lot of time to reflect on it, because he was also greeted by the jagged end of a broken wooden plank being held up to his face.

"What are you doing here?" grunted a voice. It sounded as if it hadn't been used for a while.

"I'm… here looking for… for Crow," Luke mumbled, keeping his head tilted up, away from the plank.

"Who wants to see Crow anymore?"

"Luke Triton does, so stop trying to scare me, Crow!" snapped Luke.

The plank was dropped to the floor with a clatter and the aforementioned Crow stepped into Luke's line of vision. He looked hostile, arms folded in a standoffish manner, but it wasn't his body language that caught Luke's attention the most. What Luke really noticed was how haggard and scruffy he was, clothes scuffed and carelessly covered in dirt, his old scarf barely clinging onto his neck, having been reduced to tatters and the aroma of having… not been around clean water for quite sometime finishing the appearance off.

It was hard for Luke to mask his surprise.

"You shouldn't have come looking for me," Crow growled, "You know tons of other people in Misthallery, so why didn't you go to see them instead?"

"Because they didn't make me worry the same way you did," Luke mumbled, honestly.

Scowling, Crow retorted, "How did I make you worry about me? No one even said anything about me to you."

Ignoring that Crow had apparently been following him throughout the day, Luke answered, "That lack of information worried me more. The other kids were always very fond of you, Crow. It made no sense to me that they wouldn't tell me about what had happened to you, unless it was something bad."

"Nothing bad has happened," Crow replied.

"Your appearance says otherwise," snorted Luke.

"Some of us can't afford to dress as finely as you do. We don't all live in your world, Luke," Crow shot back.

"I know you're not rich. But you at least had a family who kept you in clean clothes back when I knew you. Out of all of you guys, you were the one I least expected to-"

"Shut up!"

Luke half expected Crow to go for the plank of wood again, so he stood firmly on it to stop him from picking it up. So instead, Crow made do with quivering with anger, his hands balling into fists.

"You don't know anything about me or my family!" he yelled.

"I know we were never close," Luke agreed, "But I do know you well enough to know that you used to be a calm and collected person, not someone who would scream their head off at a few questions."

"Times change, people change…" muttered Crow.

"But no one in Misthallery seems to have changed, except for you," Luke objected.

"No one else had any reason to," Crow spat.

"Then what reason did you have? Why did you disband the Black Ravens? They meant everything to you. Or I thought they did," Luke pressed.

"You're not going to go away until I give you some answers, are you?"

"No."

"I thought not. Well, take a seat and I'll fill you in on what I can…"

Luke politely tried his best to sit down on one of the rocks that for some reason now littered the place, while Crow made do with leaning against an upturned storage box, as he began his story.

"I never wanted to call it off," he began, "You're right, the Black Ravens do mean the world to me, but… it was for their own good. All of them were bright kids with futures ahead of them; when the market was destroyed it would have been wrong to force them to stay and try to fix it, if they could instead be making careers for themselves. None of them wanted to go, I fell out with many of them, but it was for the best…"

"But how did the market get destroyed at all?" Luke cut in.

If Crow had seemed uncomfortable before, that doubled now; "I never told my parents about the black market…"

"And?"

Luke had a feel that no parents would be happy to discover their son was running a potentially illegal underground operation, but he doubted that Crow's parents would be harsh enough to-

"My dad went berserk when he found out, smashed up the whole place," Crow continued, confirming Luke's fears.

"What! But… didn't your mum stop him or something?" questioned Luke. He didn't actually know a lot about Crow's parents, but he remembered hearing that Crow's mum always used to keep his short-tempered dad in check with her calm nature.

"Mum was gone by then," Crow replied, "She'd run off sometime ago, don't blame her, really. I don't think she could hold off dad's temper all the time after he got laid off the factory… That was really how dad found out about the Black Ravens – he wanted us both to leave town to go looking for her, but I said that I couldn't leave the people I care about or the business I built behind," there was a pause in which Crow barked out a bitter laugh, "So he destroyed my business and forced me to drive the people around me away, fitting really."

"I had no idea…" Luke gasped.

"No, no one did. Dad was good at keeping up an image until mum left. Everyone knew he had a temper, but no one suspected he was actually violent. Mum was too scared to say anything, while I was too stupid to realise what was going to behind the curtain until I got older and put two and two together…" said Crow, "He got what was coming to him in the end, though. He didn't have my money to rely on after he disposed of the black market and there was no work for him after the factory shut down. Nowadays everyone knows he's a no good drunk, so no one will hire him." Crow smirked with satisfaction at the last part.

"So you live down here now?" Luke guessed.

"Pretty much. Though I don't hang around here all the time, because sometimes the old man still comes down to check when he's in a bad mood," Crow answered.

"Then why didn't you use my old house? No one was living there," Luke said.

"That was your place, I do have standards. Though… I do admit that I might have broken in a couple of times when I really needed something to sell," Crow awkwardly admitted.

"So it was you who took the trinkets and wine," said Luke, actually quite relieved that the answer to that riddle hadn't been anything more dangerous than Crow trying to feed himself.

Crow shook his head, "Not the wine, no. Dad took all of that. I could never be done with the stuff and it looked like it was probably worth something to your family."

"But you took other things that my family held dear," Luke observed.

"It was either me or him. And I didn't sell everything," Crow said, foraging around in one of the boxes before throwing something at Luke.

"Teddy!"

Luke was instantly embarrassed by his outburst upon catching the bear and frowned at Crow's chuckle. A grown man should not be that please to see a stuffed toy bear…

"He mean a lot to you, does he?" laughed Crow.

"My mum gave him to me," Luke replied, defensively, "I left him behind when I went to London; because I knew I was too old for toy bears…"

Crow instantly sympathised, "My mum gave me this scarf, and it's the last thing I have to remember her by as well… All right then, I won't laugh about your bear."

"Thank you very much," Luke huffed, then softened and added, "Come up to my house for the night."

"I can't do that."

"No, I insist that you do. It'll be really lonely being there on my own, so I could do with the company. Besides, you look like you could do with a decent meal," Luke said.

"Very well," Crow replied, "But only because I'm doing you a favour."

"Wouldn't think of it any other way," Luke said, with a smile.

It took a bit longer to get back to the Triton Manor in the dark than it had done when Luke had gone to the market during the day, but Luke felt a lot more comfortable with someone by his side. And although not a word was spoken between them, Luke got the impression that Crow felt safer walking with someone else, in case his dad showed up.

Once they'd go inside, Luke got to work making something for them to eat. Despite being initially hostile, Crow now seemed to want to talk more openly, hanging around the kitchen while Luke was cooking, simply to chat about nothing in particular. When the food was done, he ate with the speed of a man who hadn't seen a decent meal for a long time, which may well have been the case, before saying they should probably both get some rest.

"No, not quite yet," Luke corrected.

"Aren't you tired after running around the market all day?" Crow checked.

"I am, but there's a more important matter that we need to deal with first," Luke replied, cryptically.

"And what would that be?" asked Crow.

"Um, well, no offense, but… you smell. Really bad. So before we do anything else, I think that you should get yourself a bath," Luke instructed.

"You're not my mother," scoffed Crow.

"But I am a person who's been around you for more than five minutes. And out of respect to other people who may come to fall into that category, I'm putting my foot down about this," replied Luke.

Crow shook his head; "You're really harsh! But fine, if it'll keep you happy."

Without further complaint, Crow did as he was told, heading upstairs to run himself a bath. Given the amount of time that he allowed himself to soak, before coming back downstairs, Luke presumed that he'd probably enjoyed it once he'd got in amongst the hot water and soapy bubbles.

He also observed that Crow had come downstairs wearing one of his father's old bath robes.

"Hope you don't mind," Crow said, sheepishly, "It was the first thing I grabbed, since my own clothes… aren't looking so great."

"I'm going to attack your clothes with a washing machine as soon as I can," Luke assured him, "And, yes, you can wear that. You can borrow a pair of my pyjamas as well, if you want to."

"Thanks Luke, you're too nice," Crow replied.

"So I've been told. Now, we really should be getting some sleep," finished Luke, with a yawn.

There were no objections there and the two boys headed up to bed. For the moment, Crow was given Luke's parent's room to stay in, as Luke still felt more comfortable sleeping in his own room than anywhere else.

When morning drew around, Luke made the two of them some breakfast, and then got to washing Crow's clothes as if they had personally offended him.

Meanwhile, Crow sat watching him, still wearing a pair of Luke's pyjamas. They were slightly too small for him, but Luke couldn't help but feel they somehow looked good on the other man. He had to force himself not to stare.

"Either you really love housework or you really hate my clothes," Crow commented, as he watched Luke venomously dump the pile into the machine.

"A bit of both," Luke replied, "When I lived with the Professor I did a lot of housework, because he was terrible at keeping his office clean. You look surprised. Do you really think all of us rich kids can't look after ourselves?"

"Guess I should know better, seeing how long Tony looked after himself and Arianna for," agreed Crow.

"Oh man, the Bardes! I completely forgot I was supposed to go see them!" Luke gasped, slapping his forehead.

"Would have thought Arianna would be the first thing on your mind," replied Crow, raising an eyebrow.

Sighing, Luke answered, "Well someone happened to distract me with their personal drama when I arrived, okay?" he shot Crow a look, "And, if I'm honest, I'm kind of nervous about seeing them…"

"I can see why. Everyone saw Arianna kiss you when you left. There were so many rumours about you two flying around, but she wouldn't say anything about it and Tony would get annoyed at anyone who talked bad about his sister," Crow said.

"The thing is… I don't even know what's going on between us," Luke admitted, turning from the washing machine to look at Crow, "I mean, after she kissed me I assumed that she liked me and maybe we kind of might have been dating. But we were both so young and shy that we just danced around the subject in our letters to each other. Over the years, we ended up writing less often, since we were both doing other things, and eventually it just fizzled out all together."

Crow shrugged; "Wish I could help you, but I haven't heard much of Tony since the Black Ravens disbanded. They still live up in that house, as far as I know. They seemed to be doing something with the Golden Garden for a while, since everyone wanted to hear about Arianna's story."

"I'm sure they'll tell me more…" Luke mumbled.

"Tell you what, why don't we both head up there when my clothes are dry? Might help break the ice a little if you have someone else with you," offered Crow.

"Thanks, that would be helpful," said Luke, sighing with relief.

It was long into the afternoon before Crow's clothes were ready and the two of them set off to visit the Bardes. The journey was also rather laboured by people stopping them, both out of surprise to see Luke again and out of surprise to see Crow walking around openly again, instead of skulking from place to place in fear of his father.

Eventually, they both made it up the winding path to Barde Manor and knocked on the door.

"Is the mistress seeing visitors today?" Luke joked, as Tony answered the door.

"Luke? Is that really you? It's so nice to see you again! And, um, you too, Crow," mumbled Tony, "Oh, and yeah, come through; I'll get Arianna to come see you."

The two of them were showed through to the living room, while they waited on a rather too large sofa as Tony went off to find his sister.

When Arianna was brought through to the room, with her came a man who Luke did not know at all. He frowned a little.

"Luke, it's wonderful to see you after so long," she said, walking over to hug him, before letting go and asking, "How long have you been back in town for?"

"Just a day," Luke answered.

"Well, I'm glad you came by to see us. By the way, this is my fiancé, Fredrick, we were going to send you a wedding invitation later this week, but now that you've turned up personally…" she trailed off.

"Fiancé?" Crow muttered, looking cautiously at Luke.

It he was expecting to see any bitterness cross the boy's face, then he was mistaken, as Luke broke into a warm smile; "Congratulations, I'm very happy to hear the news."

"You are? I was wondering how you'd take it…" Arianna replied.

"You shouldn't have worried. I'm glad you've found someone you're happy with, really," Luke assured her, shaking her hand, "Just make sure you don't forget to invite the Professor to the wedding as well."

"I wouldn't dream of missing him out; or Miss Altava either," she confirmed.

There seemed to be a weight lifted off her chest after that. Luke was fine with her marrying someone else. The rest of the afternoon was spent with the group of them discussing small matters, like what Luke had been up to since he left and how Arianna had met Fredrick. Very little attention was paid to Crow, despite Luke making several attempts to draw him into the conversation. But Crow personally preferred to be ignored. While they were all nice people, he had very little to say to the upper classes and enjoyed being free to just listen. He noted how relaxed Luke seemed to feel, as well as Arianna, once the situation about her engagement had been established.

In the evening, Luke and Crow bid themselves farewell and headed back home.

Crow couldn't resist checking; "Are you really all right with Arianna marrying someone else?"

"Of course I am. I have no reason not to be," Luke confirmed.

"But you were saying this morning that you and her…"

"I was saying that I had no idea what her and I were anymore. I wasn't sure if she saw me as her boyfriend or as a friend. And now I know the answer to that. It makes me feel better. It's not that I don't care about her, but… it's sort of odd not knowing if you're tied to someone or not. Especially when you've not seen them for so long. Somehow, knowing that we're just friends for certain, I kind of feel like I suddenly have more freedom, perhaps. She feels the same way, I think," Luke clarified.

"So what's going to happen now that you're a free, single man?" asked Crow, jokingly.

"Probably nothing," Luke admitted, "I haven't really found anyone I'm attracted to yet."

"They say it'll happen when it happens. Though I've never fallen for anyone either, so I can't judge. I was too in love with my work," Crow replied.

"Then you had that taken away from you. I'm really sorry…" mumbled Luke.

"Don't be," Crow scolded, "What's in the past can't be changed. You've done plenty enough letting me stay with you for the moment as it is."

"I could do more for you," Luke offered, "My family isn't using the house anymore and I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind if you wanted to live there."

"Can't, my dad still goes there," Crow muttered, "Well, he hasn't since he cleared out your cellar, but if I start living there then he'll sharp find out and be up there to sort me out."

Luke didn't say that Crow should learn to face his father. He knew so little of both the situation and of Crow's father, beyond what he'd been told, that it would be wrong of him to make a judgment like that. If Crow was scared of his dad, there was probably a good reason for it.

All the same, years of saving people alongside Layton had made Luke feel the need to help out anyone that he could. Especially a friend.

"Then come back to London with me," he proposed.

"Are you mad? I can't do that!" Crow gaped, staring at him.

"Yes, you can. I can afford to look after you and you'd be far enough away from your dad that you won't have to worry about him anymore. Plus, you could start up your business again in London, if you wanted," Luke replied.

"I'm not going to freeload from you anymore than I already have," said Crow.

"You're not freeloading! I want to help you!" Luke snapped.

"That doesn't make it not freeloading, it just makes it charity," Crow insisted, "And I'm not taking it."

"You're being stubborn."

"Maybe that's one thing I get from my old man."

"Look… just think about it, okay?"

"I will, but don't expect me to change my mind."

Luke, however, did indeed expect Crow to change his mind and kept pestering him about the point for every day that he was there, up until Crow threatened to go back to living in his hole in the ground if Luke mentioned it again. Begrudgingly, Luke stopped asking after that.

But because he had no set time that he had to return to London for and he hated the idea of leaving Crow to go back to living the way he was, Luke continued to prolong his trip to Misthallery, until several months later he got a call from the Professor.

"Luke, we're worrying about you," Layton said, as the two of them talked over the phone, "You've been gone a long time. If you're moving back to Misthallery permanently then please let me know."

"I'm not really sure, Professor," Luke admitted, "I still want to live in London, but there's someone here that I can't leave…"

"Crow?"

"How did you know?"

"He was the one who answered the phone," Layton chuckled, "The two of you do seem to be settling in together nicely."

"What are you saying?" Luke huffed.

"Just that it's… nice you've found someone you're comfortable living with," hummed Layton.

"I do like living with Crow. I just wish he liked it enough to want to come back to London with me…" sighed Luke.

"These things take time, my boy. Sometimes it is best not to keep obstinately hammering at a point and just let a person come to realise what they want on their own," Layton advised.

"I do not keep 'hammering a point'!" Luke said, indignantly.

"Then how can you explain why, upon answering the phone, Crow said, 'He better not have got you in on trying to get me to move to London,' to me, hmm?" Layton teased.

"I… he… How could he accuse me of that?" Luke replied.

"All I'm saying is to give him time, as he clearly needs it," Layton said, getting them back on the point.

"If he has anymore time I might just have to move in here permanently," Luke groaned.

"You're exaggerating things, I'm sure. Regardless, I'll see you at the wedding," concluded Layton.

"W-wedding? We're not getting married, Professor! I mean, Crow's really great and I-"

"Hold on, Luke. I meant Arianna's wedding later this week. I certainly wasn't implying anything," Layton confirmed, sounding a little too amused.

"Ah… Um, of course you did! S-sorry! My mistake. I'll… let you go now…" Luke murmured, hanging up the phone. He felt very embarrassed.

"Done chatting to Mr. Layton?" Crow asked, coming through with a tray of toast that he'd made for them to share.

"Yeah… I think he thinks there's… um, something going on between us," mumbled Luke, gladly taking a slice from the tray, as Crow set it down on the table.

"What would make him think that?" Crow said. He didn't sound as surprised or even tickled by such an apparently absurd notion as Luke had been expecting.

"Just reading into what I was saying, I expect. But either way, we can set him on the right track when we see him later this week," Luke replied.

"Either way?" Crow queried.

"Yes?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that we'll be able to… to tell him what's going on between us either way," Luke mumbled.

"So, what is going on between us?" said Crow, who would also like to be set straight in regards to that point.

"N-nothing… I think. We're friends, it'd be weird…" Luke answered, feeling the hairs on his arms prickle with nerves.

Crow was also avoiding making eye contact; "I don't think it'd be so weird."

"You don't?" Luke looked seriously across at him.

"No. Well, it would be for other people, but not for us. I mean, we might as well be living together by now and I… I feel comfortable about that. It's different to how I felt around the guys. I felt comfortable with them too, but this is… a different kind of comfortable. Like a comfortable I would mind settling down with," Crow confessed.

"Even though we're both guys…?" Luke checked, wondering if it was even all right to ask a question like that.

"If this is about sexuality, then I probably should have clued you in about mine long before now," Crow laughed.

"I don't mean that horribly," Luke said, quickly, "It's just that I never really thought about having a relationship with another guy before. Um, I do feel… sort of different about you than I do about most people, but I guess I always just assumed that I'd be into girls."

"That's society for you," commented Crow, "If you want to give it a try though, then I wouldn't mind being the one to hold your hand."

Luke leaned forwards; "I'd like that a lot."

"Glad to hear."

Crow was looking directly at him now. He didn't even have time to feel unnerved by the intensity of the stare, because in the next moment Crow had moved forwards to kiss him gently on the lips. This was only the second kiss Luke had received in his life, not counting those from his family. And this was the first kiss he'd ever gotten on the lips. While he didn't want to think of himself as cheesy, he couldn't help but noticed how easy it was to melt into a kiss. How it gave him butterflies in his stomach, but at the same time made him feel oddly relaxed. It was a strange combination.

As Crow pulled away again, he opened his eyes. He'd hardly even noticed that he'd closed them.

"Wow…"

"So what are you going to tell Mr. Layton now?" Crow teased.

"I, um, I'll tell him that I don't kiss and tell," Luke tried, laughing at how terrible that sounded.

The rest of the day was spent with the two of them awkwardly settling into their new situation. Luke couldn't help but feel happy at finally being in a relationship and knowing for certain he was in one.

As the days to Arianna's wedding drew closer, Luke generally felt himself feeling a lot more cheerful. Neither Crow nor he had mentioned their relationship to anyone else, but those who lived in the area definitely noticed a change for the better in both of them, regardless of whether or not they realised why.

Perhaps because he was so intrigued by his first real relationship, Luke seemed to be having trouble keeping track of the time. He was never in a rush to be anywhere right now, so he never made himself feel rushed. Because of that, on the day before the wedding, Luke ended up hanging around North Ely, catching up with old friends of his parents, for a little too long.

With winter came the darker nights and Luke wasn't too fazed at the prospect of having to walk home by the light of the street lamps.

At least not until he heard someone else walking close by.

"Who's there?" Luke called. He knew everyone in Misthallery and had no reason to be scared of any late night walkers, but all the same he felt uneasy.

There was a clink of a bottle being dropped to the ground, and then a bulky man stepped into view. He wasn't someone Luke knew, possibly a tourist, but all the same the way he regarded Luke didn't seem friendly. The man leered at him through red-rimmed eyes, trying to focus.

"You 's th' Triton son," the man slurred.

"Y-yes, I'm Luke Triton…" mumbled Luke, not wanting to get into a conversation with this man.

He backed away a little, but the stranger moved swiftly for someone of his size, grabbing hold of Luke by his jacket and lifting him off the floor with ease to slam him against the nearest lamp post. Luke cried out with the pain of the impact.

"You… ya turned m' son inta one o' those… those cunts… Those queer cunts. Ya keep 'im up in ya posh 'ouse like a little pet dog…" the man accused, shaking Luke to punctuate each point of the statement, "But we's don't need t' be given stuff by rich toffs. We's got dig… dignity…"

Luke wanted to reason with the man, but he was frozen with fear. The best he could do with choke out a strangled cry and hope that someone nearby would hear the drunken rages of this man and come to help.

"Get off him!"

His pleas were answered. Luke just vaguely made out the form of Crow, launching himself at his father. The man bellowed with rage, dropping his hold on Luke to attempt to dislodge Crow's hold on his back.

There was little more Luke could do than attempt to pull himself up from the ground with limited success.

"I'll kill ya…! You little faggot! Bringin' dis-dishonour onta the family name…!" Crow's dad yelled.

"I would like to assume that murdering a young man would bring more dishonour to a family's name than anyone's sexuality would," commented a third voice.

Luke had never been happier to see Layton in his life and he was frequently happy to see the man. Although the Professor rarely gave into violence when there was an alternate, he wasted no time in this situation in darting forward to aid Crow in trying to detain the drunken man. Not knowing which of them to go for, Crow's father made do with flailing his arms around in an attempt to batter whichever one he happened to hit between Layton and Crow.

However, because his stamina was fuelled by alcohol, in comparison to Layton's years of training as a fencer, it didn't take long before the Professor had gotten him down and, with Crow's help, held him there until the police turned up.

It took until Crow's dad was being restrained by several officers for Luke to notice that there were lights on in almost all of the windows of the surrounding houses and many people were watching from out of them.

"Luke, are you all right?" Crow asked, gripping him in a tight hug.

"I'm fine…" Luke muttered, "What happened here…?"

"My dad… He found out about us… just because everyone talks in Misthallery and I wasn't trying to keep it a secret or anything. I'm so sorry…" Crow murmured, without letting go.

"It's a good thing that I happened to be staying in the hotel and Crow had come to talk to me," Layton said, walking over, "Otherwise we might not have heard the noise that his father was making."

"Professor… Thank you," mumbled Luke, "If it weren't for both of you…"

"Shh, don't think of that," soothed Layton, "You've been through quite an ordeal. Come on, we can all rest up at the hotel."

Luke had no objections to this and he shakily walked back to the hotel with Layton and Crow, heading up to Layton's room, where the three of them could get privacy. After establishing that he was there for the wedding tomorrow, the Professor had a few more things that he wanted to talk with his former apprentice about.

"Crow here came to talk with me about the situation between you and him," Layton confirmed.

"Oh."

Luke had been uncertain about how he'd address such a topic with Layton. But if he'd been worried about him not approving of the idea of the two of them dating then Layton proved him wrong by not regarding the situation as any differently to how he might have done had Luke been in a relationship with anyone else in the world.

"I wanted…" Crow cut in, "I wanted to ask his advice about moving to London."

"You did? But I thought you didn't want to move," Luke gaped.

"I didn't want to freeload from you and I was scared about what my father might do if he found out about you. But Mr. Layton helped clear up a lot of things. He says that if we're serious about this then we both need to work at making things happen together. And that it isn't freeloading. He also told me that I shouldn't be scared of my father, but I guess we already dealt with that…" Crow answered.

"Yes, I believe that man will certainly be charged for assault, with all those witnesses about," agreed Layton, "But regardless, I hope that the two of you will return with me to London after the wedding. Flora and the others have missed you a lot, my boy, and I'm sure they'll be glad to meet Crow."

Luke nodded; "Professor, if Crow's coming with me than nothing in the world could keep me away from London."

And then maybe I can feel at home at last, he added to himself.

Crow gazed at the wall for a moment, and then he looked at Luke and asked, "Does this count as running away from home?"

"I reckon you did that a long time ago," Luke answered.

"It's still daunting all the same," replied Crow.

"Don't worry, I'll be there to hold your hand," Luke teased.

"I'm not a child!" scoffed Crow.

"No, but I just want to hold your hand," Luke admitted.

So Luke did take hold of his hand. And in that moment, suddenly both of the boys knew that, regardless of where they were, they were now both very definitely home.


End file.
